The Atumpan is a type of Asante talking drum. [1] [2] Played in pairs, these drums provide the bass part in Adowa dance ensembles. These drums are also found in Fontomfrom ensembles. [3]
The Atumpan is a type of Asante talking drum. [1] [2] Played in pairs, these drums provide the bass part in Adowa dance ensembles. These drums are also found in Fontomfrom ensembles. [3]
The body of the atumpan is made of wood, with a hollow interior. Its bottom is open, to increase its resonance. Its drumhead is made of animal hide that is stretched out to cover the top of the drum's body. There are several pegs near the top of the drum's body, which tension cords attached to them. These cords extend to the drumhead, holding it in place. [4] Most atumpans are about 25 centimeters (8 inches) in width, and almost 60 centimeters (22 inches) high. [3]
The atumpan is played either with one's bare hands or L-shaped sticks. [4]
The atumpan or ntumpane talking drum are used by Asante and Akan to communicate/send messages and are mostly found in Ghana. [5] [6]
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a percussion mallet, to produce sound. There is usually a resonant head on the underside of the drum. Other techniques have been used to cause drums to make sound, such as the thumb roll. Drums are the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, and the basic design has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.
Yaa Asantewaa I was the Queen Mother of Ejisu in the Ashanti Empire, now part of modern-day Ghana. She was appointed by her brother Nana Akwasi Afrane Okese, the Edwesuhene, or ruler, of Edwesu. In 1900, she led the Ashanti war also known as the War of the Golden Stool, or the Yaa Asantewaa War of Independence, against the British Empire.
Kumasi is a city in the Ashanti Region, and is among the largest metropolitan areas in Ghana. Kumasi is located in a rain forest region near Lake Bosomtwe, and is the commercial, industrial, and cultural capital of the historical Ashanti Empire. Kumasi is approximately 500 kilometres (300 mi) north of the Equator and 200 kilometres (100 mi) north of the Gulf of Guinea. Kumasi is alternatively known as "The Garden City" because of its many species of flowers and plants in the past. It is also called Oseikrom, after Osei Kofi Tutu I who was a king in the Ashanti empire.
Kente refers to a Ghanaian textile made of hand-woven strips of silk and cotton. Historically the fabric was worn in a toga-like fashion by royalty among the Ewe and Akan. According to Ashanti oral tradition, it originated from Bonwire in the Ashanti region of Ghana. In modern day Ghana, the wearing of kente cloth has become widespread to commemorate special occasions, and kente brands led by master weavers are in high demand. Kente is also worn in parts of Togo and Ivory Coast by the Ewe and Akan people there.
Marching percussion instruments are percussion instruments specially designed to be played while moving. This is achieved by attaching the drum(s) to a special harness worn by the drummer, although not all marching bands use such harnesses and instead use traditional baldrics to sling their drums.
The tsudzumi (鼓) or tsuzumi is a hand drum of Japanese origin. It consists of a wooden body shaped like an hourglass, and it is taut, with two drum heads with cords that can be squeezed or released to increase or decrease the tension of the heads respectively. This mechanism allows the player to raise or lower the pitch of the drum while playing, not unlike the African talking drum and the Indian dhadd.
The Ashanti Region is located in the southern part of Ghana and is the third largest of 16 administrative regions, occupying a total land surface of 24,389 km2 (9,417 sq mi) and making up 10.2 percent of the total land area of Ghana. It is the most populated region in Ghana, with a population of 4,780,380, according to the 2011 census, accounting for 19.4% of Ghana's total population. The Ashanti Region is known for its gold bar and cocoa production. The largest city and capital of Ashanti is Kumasi.
The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, whose pitch can be regulated to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather tension cords, which allow the player to change the pitch of the drum by scraping the cords between their arm and body.
Asante Kotoko Sporting Club, simply known as Asante Kotoko, is a professional football club founded on 31 August 1935 and based in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Nicknamed the Porcupine Warriors, they compete in the Ghana Premier League and play their home matches at the Baba Yara Stadium in Amakom, Kumasi.
Ewe drumming refers to the drumming ensembles of the Ewe people of Ghana, Togo, and Benin. The Ewe are known for their experience in drumming throughout West Africa. The sophisticated cross rhythms and polyrhythms in Ewe drumming are similar to those in Afro-Caribbean music and late jazz. The original purpose of Ewe drumming were sung or performed by warriors. Now the songs and performed to celebrate or for recreational use. For example, Agbadza was originally used as a warrior dance but is now used to celebrate events.
The shime-daiko (締め太鼓) is a small Japanese drum. It has a short but wide body with animal skin drumheads on both its upper and bottom sides. The hide is first stretched on metal hops, then stretched over the body. Similar to the tsuzumi and to African talking drums, both drum heads are bound together with cords so that the drum heads are bound by each other. Like the larger taiko drums, the shime-daiko is played with sticks called "bachi," while it's suspended on a stand. Being very taut, the shime-daiko has a higher pitch than that of normal taiko. Shime-daiko are used in various Japanese music ensembles, from nagauta, hayashi, taiko, to folk music, or min'yō ensembles.
The Mankessim Kingdom (1252–1844) was a pre-colonial African state in modern-day Ghana. It is regarded as the heartland of the Fante people, and operated as capital of the Fante Confederacy in the 19th century. The town of Mankessim still exists, and is located in the Central Region of Ghana, about an hour and a half drive west of Accra. The Mankessim Kingdom's influence was quite vast; it extended to the whole of the Fante people, and at times the entire coast of modern-day Ghana.
The Asante Empire, today commonly called the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted from 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana as well as parts of Ivory Coast and Togo. Due to the empire's military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy and culture, the Ashanti Empire has been extensively studied and has more historic records written by European, primarily British, authors than any other indigenous culture of sub-Saharan Africa.
The Asante, also known as Ashanti, are part of the Akan ethnic group and are native to the Ashanti Region of modern-day Ghana. Asantes are the last group to emerge out of the various Akan civilisations. Twi is spoken by over nine million Asante people as a first or second language.
Bice Osei Kuffour is a Ghanaian hiplife musician, known popularly by the name Obour, which means "stone" in the Akan language. He is the immediate past president of the Musicians Union of Ghana, an umbrella group that unites all musicians in Ghana irrespective of genre. Bice Osei Kuffour contested the NPP primaries elections in the Asante Akyem South constituency as a parliamentary candidate. He was later appointed as secretary to the NPP 2020 Campaign Ashanti Region Advertising Committee. Obour is an alumnus of the University of Ghana, the US International Visitor Leadership Programme, Aspen Global Leadership Network, and African Leadership Initiative of West Africa. He was the youngest recipient of the State Grand Medal Honour given by President J. A Kufuor in 2008. He is a social activist who doubles as a National Road Safety Ambassador; W.H.O Tuberculosis Ambassador British Council & Forest Commission of Ghana Climate Change Ambassador. He is president and Founder of the Christiana Addo Memorial Foundation which promotes education, sanitation, personal hygiene, and youth empowerment in Asante Akyem, and on December 22, 2021 was appointed by President Nana Akufo-Addo, as the Acting Managing Director of Ghana Post.
An Akrafena is an Ashanti sword, originally meant for warfare but also forming part of Ashanti heraldry. The foremost example of an akrafena is the Mponponsuo, which belonged to Opoku Ware II. It has survived to the present day because it is still occasionally used in ceremonies, such as the Akwasidae Festival.
Fontomfrom is a Bono type of hourglass-shaped drum mostly used by an ensemble of Bono people to communicate Bono monarchy royal messages in a Bono people ethnic group setting. The Fontomfrom ensemble provides music for ceremonies honoring Bono chiefs and Bono monarchy royal processions. The Fontomfrom is also used to recite proverbs or replicate patterns of speech at most Bono monarchy royal gatherings or a Bono monarchy royal durbar.
The political organization of the historical Ashanti Empire was characterized by stools which denoted "offices" that were associated with a particular authority. The Golden Stool was the most powerful of all, because it was the office of the King of the Ashanti Empire. Scholars such as Jan Vansina have described the governance of the Ashanti Empire as a federation where state affairs were regulated by a council of elders headed by the king, who was simply primus inter pares.
The Ashanti Empire was governed by an elected monarch with its political power centralised. The entire government was a federation. By the 19th century, the Empire had a total population of 3 million. The Ashanti society was matrilineal as most families were extended and were headed by a male elder who was assisted by a female elder. Asante twi was the most common and official language. At its peak from the 18th–19th centuries, the Empire extended from the Komoé River in the West to the Togo Mountains in the East.
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